Wednesday, September 14, 2011

CourseGuides show the way

If you've been in a library session with one of your classes this semester, you already know about one of the awesome tools the library offers - CourseGuides.

If you've looked at the library website (and I hope you have!) you already know that there's a lot of information on it. Sometimes, it feel overwhelming - there's so much there that it's hard to tell where to start, or which part of the site has what you need.

We also create guides for both general subject areas (computers and technology, for example) and for specific classes. As an example, most of the First Year Seminar classes have a guide designed just for them to help with particular projects or needed resources. (Lots of other classes do, too.) We can easily build in links to other guides, so it's a one-click trip if you need help with citing your source, finding an article, or evaluating something you found.

We have a lot of guides. If you're looking for a specific topic, we suggest browsing down the left sidebar on the main index page and clicking on your subject area, then looking for the specific class or topic.

Each guide includes a sidebar with information about the librarian who created it, and how to contact them. Feel free to use this if you have a question about that guide or a particular resource.

You can see how recently a guide was updated by looking at the summary information on the index pages. (Most of ours are checked at least every semester.)